Waiting for the OIPCBC Adjudicator and Other Observations

Last Friday I received the final statement from the City’s legal representative in my quest to see the redacted segment of the video of the Council meeting of July 14 last year returned to the public record along with the publication of that Notice of Motion in the Minutes of that meeting. It is now up to the adjudicator to determine whether my request had sufficient merit. I am not sure how long it may be until a final decision is rendered, but I will be happy to see the end of the process after nearly a year.

I have watched the latest meetings of Council with great interest and have reached the conclusion that there is hope that the delicate balance that must exist between Council’s powers of Policy and Procedure and Staff’s powers in operations arising from those policies and procedures may be on the way to finding an important balance. For some time it has appeared to me that Council has deferred too greatly to Staff in making political decisions. This may be coming to an end as Council asserts it authority in the political end of governance. When each body does its best in its own area of administration and can leave the other, while well informed, to its devices, we can have a municipal government which effectively and efficiently serves the entire community without rancor.

We have several tests of this balance coming up soon as the City faces decisions on the Core Review and the E & N Trail. I will write more about issues soon.